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Invest In Anti-Terrorism Mutual Funds

Whether you agree or disagree with the war in Iraq or even the “war on terror”, I think we can all find common ground in the fact that terrorism is a horrible reality in the world and it needs to be stopped. In order for terrorism to take place, it takes resources and these resources have to come from a some kind of funding. The fundamental reaon why the Bush Administration justifies their actions in the Middle East is because they believe that terrorism would not exist if oil-rich countries were not sponsoring terrorists. Terrorists are poor. If you think Osama Bin-Laden is a self made millionare, you are wrong. If you think that terrorists can still pull off acts like 9/11 with limited funding, you are wrong. Many leaders in our country believe that we need to cut off theses sources of funding and many believe that Iran and other Middle Eastern countries are funding terrorist groups. So, what can we do about this?

Congress has been trying to pass laws to stop allowing pension funds, 401(k)’s, and other company sponsored retirement plans from offering mutual funds that invest in companies from countries that are believed to sponsor terrorism. It sounds far fetched, but think about the impact that everyday Americans could have on the War on Terror if every person in the United States with a retirement plan stopped investing in companies from countries that sponsor terror. These companies would feel the effects. They might not feel it right away, but over a period of years, we will help contribute to stop a great deal of funding to terror.

One argument to this is that if we start consciously investing in companies from Middle Eastern countries, then who is to say that pro-life advocates should invest in companies that support abortion. Or people that advocate a strong policy on gun control should stop investing in mutual funds with pro-gun companies. Where would it ever end? Ultimately, we may be able to tie every company to a social issue that we don’t believe in. However, my argument is that terrorism is not a social issue. It is a real threat to every person in the world. It is the most dangerous phenomenon ever seen in history, because it is completely unpredictable. We don’t know who they are, we don’t know when they’ll strike next, and we don’t know how to stop it. We can band together and pick out the companies that help support and fund terrorism.

The Roosevelt Anti-Terror Multicap Fund is a mutual fund that does not invest in any companies from North Korea, Sudan, Syria, or Iran. It has been around for a while, but it started this philosophy of consciously not investing in companies from terror-sponsoring countries in 2005. The fund has a great track record. It has a 5 year rate of return of 13% and Nationwide is reportedly going to start offering this fund as part of their 401(k) porfolio.

This post is not about whether you love or hate George Bush, it’s not about whether you are anti-war or pro-war, it’s not even about being super paranoid about what companies you put your money into. It’s about banding together for helping to destroy terrorism. It’s going to take more than our army to destroy terrorism. It will take the uniting of the common masses including you and I. If you want to be a part of this, check out what companies your mutual funds invest in. Don’t dump all of your mutual funds right away and put your money in a safe. Just be more aware of where your money is going.

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Erik and his wife, Lindzee, live in Orlando, Florida with a baby boy on the way. Erik works as an account manager for a marketing company, and considers counseling friends, family and the readers of Money Crashers his personal ministry to others. Erik became passionate about personal finance and helping others make wise financial decisions after racking up over $20k in credit card and student loan debt within the first two years of college.

http://www.techsoapbox.com/ AhmedF

Sorry – when Haliburton moves their HQ to the UAE and no one blinks an eye, this is just a way for them to capitalize on hysteria.

Not to mention Haliburton has been doing business with Iran for a long long time (even Forbes magazine has talked about it).

erik.folgate

Again, I thought I made it quite clear in the post that I was not asking for people to express their ideological conspiracy theories. Your reference to Halliburton implies that Bush took our country to war over making more profits on oil. There is not a shred of evidence that these were his motives, and if there were, you can be SURE that every liberal newspaper and tv network would have reported it by now. This is not a political blog. I just thought that everyone would be able to find a common denominator in the fact that terrorism is real and a threat to our country and there are small ways for us to make a big impact on stopping it.

http://www.techsoapbox.com/ AhmedF

What?

1. This isn’t a conspiracy theory, its a fact. They *are* moving their HQ 2. This boilerplate about hating George Bush == hating America is getting tiresome. I never even mentioned George Bush. In case you haven’t realized, there are over 300,000,000 people in the US. Even if I did hate George Bush, it is a logical fallacy to assume that hate for one person parlays into hate for 300 million people (and the country).

Regardless, my point is simple: when a company that gets major US government contracts moves their HQ offshore to evade taxes, all the while doing business with Iran for years (which has been ‘illegal’ for a long time), this is simply bandwagon hysteria.

erik.folgate

I edited my last comment, because it was unfair for me to assume you hate America, however, your implications are obvious. Whenever someone brings up references to Haliburton and Bush’s ties with them, it sometimes leads people to coming to the conclusion that we went to war in the Middle East so that Haliburton could fatten their pockets.

I think we went over there for a noble cause, to spread democracy to an area that is plagued with tyranny. Democracy has worked out much better for countries in history rather than dictatorships. However, I believe the administration screwed up the campaign. I wish they would admit it, but they won’t. They did not calculate the costs, and they did not calculate the worst case scenario, and ironically enough, we are living out the worst case scenario right now.

And if Haliburton deals with Iran directly and helps fuel their economy, then the entire point of my post is to stop putting pension and retirement plan money towards their cause. I am sure there are mutual funds out there that do not invest in Haliburton. We can do something by quietly boycotting the companies that deal economically with Iran.

http://www.techsoapbox.com/ AhmedF

Actually it was more against congress/politicians in general – the hypocrisy when a company is basically working with Iran in the open :)

I agree that cutting off funding will make things harder for them. But while that may remove the ‘big’ ones, little ones (eg single suicide bombings) are very low-cost and not really dependent on the flow of money.

I see terrorism as analogous to cancer in metastases. You can get rid of the tumor (ie Al-Qaeda) with radiation (choking money/attacking directly), but eliminating terrorism that has spread needs a different strategy.

Anyway starting to ramble, as long you agree I don’t hate America, I can agree that cutting off funding to terrorism would have an impact.

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